Should Pakistan lift the ban on Indian TV channels?

Society Pakistan & World Affairs
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Should Pakistan lift the ban on Indian TV channels? or let them watch American and Western television.

Ban hits cable TV business: survey

By Our Correspondent

PESHAWAR, Sept 26: The ban on the Indian channels has badly affected the business of cable television network operators as most of their clients are no longer interested in watching the English and Pakistani channels , a Dawn survey reveals on Thursday.

The government had banned the channels on Cable Television Network in December 2001, with a view to put brakes on the anti-Pakistan propaganda and to save people from watching the objectionable programmes.

Though, in response, New Delhi had also imposed a bar to the transmissions of PTV in India, after a couple of weeks it lifted the ban. While in Pakistan, the prohibition continues.

“Now people have no choice, except watching a few English entretainment and sports channels telecast without censor”, said a cable network subscriber, Mohammad Riaz of Sufaid Dheri.

He said the people wanted Urdu programmes including films and songs because they had got installed the cable network for entertainment not to watch the vulgar English movies.

There was no obscenity or anti-Pakistan propaganda in the Indian films and songs while the English movies had become a source of spreading vulgarity, he added.

Another subscriber, Mohammad Saeed, said the Pakistani channels had no match for the Indian ones because they telecast monotonous dramas, songs and other programmes. Most of the programmes aired by these channels were the old stuff which PTV had already telecast many times, he added.

The ban was not serving the purpose as audio and video cassettes, and CDs of the Indian films and songs were being openly sold in the market.

A cable operator told Dawn that most of the Indian channels were based in Dubai, and there was no control of the Indian government over them. He alleged that some of the Pakistan-based channels had bribed the Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (Pemra) to ban these channels.

He suggested that the government should have banned only those Indian channels which telecast news and were involved in the anti-Pakistan propaganda.

"Many people are switching to digital receivers from the cable network because they could watch more entertaining programmes through that facility ", said a cable operator.

Since the launch of Cable Television Network in February 2001, each of the 20 cable operators in Peshawar pays Rs50,000 as licence fee to Pemra and additional Rs25,000 annually for per 1,000 connections.

They use electricity poles to distribute connections for which they have to pay Rs40 per pole to Wapda while the fee to install an amplifier on the poles is Rs300. Each operator pays Rs26,000 for a decoder of Star Package, Rs3,000 for HBO and Rs5,000 for multi-choice facility. In addition to this, they also pay Rs5,000-8,000 per month as power bills.

Why ban Indian channels?

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Hmm...well, I disagree, most Pakistanis seem to be surprisingly pleased with Pakistani entertainment...after all its improved quite a bit in terms of presentation, and the problem was that no Pakistani was even aware of the improvement until the ban was imposed.

Since Pakistanis living in Pakistan are so unpatriotic that they will watch Indian stuff just for the sake of watching Indian rather than Pakistani, I think the ban should be kept. Serves them right. I just hate to see them putting down paki entertainment simply becuz its Paki...a lot of pakistanis do this for some odd reason.

And there is a hell of a lot of propaganda and negative influences coming in from Indian channels...but even then, if they want to be fair about it, they'll ban channels that show Indian anti-pak news..., and they'll leave the entertainment-based channels.

Its up to them, but I would rather see the ban kept.

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:slight_smile: well right or wrong..
ab tu aadat ho gayee hai :slight_smile:
it shouldnt hvae been placed at first place
but now it shouldnt be lifted :confused:

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Are you kidding me?
A job well done by our govt.
How in the world banning Indian channels would hurt the Pakistani business. Yes the cable providers would suffer but then again Pakistani entertainment is doing better in years.
All the stuff about Pakistanis watching India dramas is junk, can you believe it, 3rd class India corny dramas preferred over 1st class high quality dramas.
Yes I do agree that Bollywood music and movies are more popular in the Pakistani households but to tell you the truth the people in Pakistan have dozens of ways to get access to Indian entertainment.
For example, pirated copies of both audio and video, and rich households can download movies and music from the net.
You can tell that this article was written by a non Pakistani, as he has no idea about Pakistani channels.
Even without the dramas Pakistan has live news and sports broadcasting and I agree the entertainment level may not be top class but its getting very popular.
I support the ban!!

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Who would miss those crappy dramas and news nights of Zee TV, star plus etc!!!!

These channels were mostly replaced by better channels, and keep in mind, channels such as star world, HBO were never banned...

Durungo, we are pleased with this ban, and we want it to stay. Plus, you should also be glad since these cable operators were showing your indian films through pirated copy, so we put an end to it, shows how much we love you.

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Keep them firmly in place I say. Where Pakistanis, why should we watch enemy television? The Indians have enough viewers as is, we shouldnt have to support their industry when ours needs the support far more.

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[QUOTE]
*Originally posted by Spock: *
Who would miss those crappy dramas and news nights of Zee TV, star plus etc!!!!

These channels were mostly replaced by better channels, and keep in mind, channels such as star world, HBO were never banned...

Durungo, we are pleased with this ban, and we want it to stay. Plus, you should also be glad since these cable operators were showing your indian films through pirated copy, so we put an end to it, shows how much we love you.
[/QUOTE]

who cares if ur cable operators show pirtated indian films?it is only a matter of concern for the indian cable channel operators if someone of them starts showing such stuffs in india.they are not at all concerned if these stuffs being shown in pakistan as long as indian films are not shown in pakistani theatres .

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One step in the right direction - Democracy.

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do the indians broadcast ptv in india? both should develop some thick skin and hear what we say about each other even if it is unpalttable.
i like to watch ptv and hear india being criticised what is the big deal?

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The ban affected a very small percentage, and that too for just a very short time. The increasing tensions along the borders helped neutralize any 'anger' that the small minority of those people had, who were opposed to this ban.

As a matter of fact, there were numerous cases of viewers calling in the Licensing authorities to report certain rebel cable operators who were nabbed playing indian movies or channels. Their licenses were of course revoked. Since then, Pakistanis for the most part, have settled down with it, and are once again enjoying pakistani media exclusivity on their televisions.
Of course, those who wish to watch indian movies can still do so on videos. But the tv ban has not affected Pakistanis at all.

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[QUOTE]
*Originally posted by gesto: *

who cares if ur cable operators show pirtated indian films?it is only a matter of concern for the indian cable channel operators if someone of them starts showing such stuffs in india.they are not at all concerned if these stuffs being shown in pakistan as long as indian films are not shown in pakistani theatres .
[/QUOTE]

I don't know if you get this or not but India pirated movies transported from India to Pakistan are all copyrighted in India and for showing those movies in Pakistan takes a chunk of money out of Bollywood, which is a good thing for us Pakistanis.

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The only people who benefit from this ban are movie pirates. I say lift the ban on Indian movies and channels. Clean up our crappy censor boards and encourage families to go to cinemas. In certain cases you should ban movies which are extremely offensive. But by seeing something wrong you encourage debate and counter arguments and makes you understand your opponents thinking.

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[QUOTE]
*Originally posted by rvikz: *
do the indians broadcast ptv in india? both should develop some thick skin and hear what we say about each other even if it is unpalttable.
i like to watch ptv and hear india being criticised what is the big deal?
[/QUOTE]

India was the first one to ban PTV in india (did someone said Largest Democracy and Free Media ?) and in response Pakistan banned Indian channels.

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[QUOTE]
*Originally posted by Zakk: *
The only people who benefit from this ban are movie pirates. I say lift the ban on Indian movies and channels. Clean up our crappy censor boards and encourage families to go to cinemas. In certain cases you should ban movies which are extremely offensive. But by seeing something wrong you encourage debate and counter arguments and makes you understand your opponents thinking.
[/QUOTE]

This is something a non muslim would say.
I guess you haven't seen the latest Pakistani and indian movies.
I say make Pakistani movies with better quality with less vulgarity and people and govt will have no problem.

I support the people who sell pirate copies.
Not only people in Pakistan get to see what they want but also we get to hurt the Indian economy. :D

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This ban is the best thing happened in long time.

  1. Its unpatriotic
  2. Its full of semi-nude and morally decadent programs.

However, when I was in Pakistan there was this National Geographic channel with hindi dubbing. That was cool. Our people should learn from our neighbours when it comes to technology.

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Hell Yes. Never heard of such a dumb ban!

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[QUOTE]
*Originally posted by Bijay: *
One step in the right direction - Democracy.
[/QUOTE]

Oh, in case you didnt know, the world largest democracy initiated this, by first banning PTV, we replied afterwards... HAHAHAHA you've been had once again, but then again, youre an Indian, youre used to that ;)

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Lets strengthen our own industry, then we can compete.

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With all due respect Umair, I do not like being accused of being non Muslim. I find that comment in very bad taste, and I don't believe a Muslim would should say something like that.

In response to Adnan's comments, Indian movies have been banned from Pakistani cinemas since the 1960's in an attempt to promote Pakistans movie industry. Lollywood responded by becoming much much worse! When there was open competition between Indian and Pakistani movies, Pakistani movies IMHO were much better!

The Movie industry needs a lot of investment, to make it something like the Iranian movie Industry which is now Internationally famous while staying within Muslim norms.

Unfortunately we're emotional people, it's more often not about vulgarity or propaganda, it's just something something we don't agree with.

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[QUOTE]
*Originally posted by UMAIR316: *

I don't know if you get this or not but India pirated movies transported from India to Pakistan are all copyrighted in India and for showing those movies in Pakistan takes a chunk of money out of Bollywood, which is a good thing for us Pakistanis.
[/QUOTE]

yes express.i know it and i have the idea abt that.but let me ask u what problem is involved in that for india if movies are being pirated and transported to pakistan?india is not earning anything out of movie shows in pakistan and moreover indian movies are not shown in pakistani theatres.so it is not a big deal.moreover it affects pakistani video and c.D renting people,as they lose their business.so indians must be happy....